Operation Manual

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 12 CLASSROOM IN A BOOK 103
1 If you don’t see the Photo Bin at the bottom of the Editor workspace, click the
Photo Bin button ( ) in the Task bar.
2 Watch the curve in the Histogram panel as you double-click each of the thumb-
nails in the Photo Bin in turn to bring that image to the front in the Edit pane.
3 For each of the photos that you’ve already worked with, double-click the thumb-
nail in the Photo Bin to bring the image window to the front; then, choose
Enhance > Adjust Smart Fix. Watch the image and its histogram change as you
drag the Fix Amount slider to set a value of 60% (for Auto Smart Fix, the value
is 40%). Click OK to close the Adjust Smart Fix dialog box.
E
Tip: Refresh the his-
togram for each image
as it becomes active.
This histogram is heavily weighted
towards the left and deficient in the
midtones and highlights; the image
is overly dark and lacks tonal depth
and definition in the girl’s face.
With plenty of information at the ends
of the curve, the overall contrast is
good, but the central trough indicates
a lack of midtone detail that gives the
shaded skin a dull, underexposed look.
The histogram for this photo shows
almost no information at either end
and a somewhat lopsided spread of
midtones. The image lacks contrast; it
appears flat and slightly overexposed.
The changes in the
images are reflected
in their histograms
(shown here with the
original curves overlaid
in gray for comparison).
In both cases there is
more information in the
midtone range, boost-
ing detail and definition
in skin tones, and a bet-
ter spread of tones from
dark to light, improving
the overall contrast.